The DESDynI synthetic aperture radar array-fed reflector antenna

DESDynI is a mission being developed by NASA with radar and lidar instruments for Earth-orbit remote sensing. This paper focuses on the design of a large-aperture antenna for the radar instrument. The antenna comprises a deployable reflector antenna and an active switched array of patch elements fed by transmit / receive modules. The antenna and radar architecture facilitates a new mode of synthetic aperture radar imaging called `SweepSAR'. A system-level description of the antenna is provided, along with predictions of antenna performance.